


Where The Lonely Ones Roam

by DandelionAdrian



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Biological Weapons, Blood and Gore, Child Abuse, Dark Lord Voldemort - Freeform, Human Experimentation, Illegal Activities, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Mercenary Tom Riddle, Science Fiction, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-01-21 20:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12465348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DandelionAdrian/pseuds/DandelionAdrian
Summary: In this line of work you couldn’t afford any mistake, because even one single tiny error could lead to an unpredictable destruction of the whole grand scheme. The butterfly effect, people often warned. Tom Riddle understood this theory just fine. But then, Tom reassured himself, this time he was only bending the rule.





	1. Lonely Ones

**Author's Note:**

> The tittle was taken from a song with the same name by Digital Daggers <3

_Say you have a little faith in me_  
_Just close your eyes and let me lead_  
_Follow me home_  
_To where the lonely ones roam_

_ _ Where The Lonely Ones Roam _ Digital Daggers _ _

 

* * *

 

The second Tom switched off the main electric power system, a loud sound coming from somewhere in the room had him startled; he immediately turned around, and was dumbstruck with horror at what he saw.

A huge transparent door was built into the wall in front of him, and if Tom had paid more attention he would have noticed it was actually tempered glass with a complex series of buttons and a mordern fingerprint scanner set up on the right side of it. In fact, if Tom had taken just one moment to think about where he had broken into, then witnessing something that seemed to be taken straight out from a science fiction scientific movie scene shouldn’t be a surprise at all.

Tom couldn’t contemplate that much, though. Because all of his attentions was pulled toward the thing that resided behind the glass wall. That was a small child, who wore only a white thin gown covering down to his knees. The kid’s wrists and ankles were shackled in metal chains, tethered to the wall behind him. Tom even spotted an electric shock collar around the boy’s neck, and multiple bruises on the inside of his elbow, probably caused by numerous needles that had pierced the skin there.

The boy slowly raised his head to gaze at Tom, revealing a pair of shining emerald eyes looking like they were glowing.

Tom found himself immediately captured inside those enchanting orbs. For a long moment, his only thought was whether it really was necessary to chain the kid up if he was already locked behind an indestructible crystal barrier?

Then his brain caught up to where exactly he was standing, while at the same time connecting all the signs he had just unconsciously collected from the child in front of him. And Tom understood.

This boy was _not_ human. Or, _no longer_ a human.

That _thing_ was a top secret biological weapon. A living crime which was born from the darkest and cruelest side of humankind.

 _Do not leave any living witness_ , that had been the only requirement he received for this mission.

Tom took a deep breath and raised his gun. But the boy suddenly lurched forward before Tom had a chance to pull the trigger, easily broken free from the heavy chains holding his limbs as if they were nothing. The child charged right into the transparent crystalline wall as if he had lost his mind.

Tom unconsciously took a step back in fright, thinking that surely a small thing like this kid wouldn’t be able to destroy a bulletfproof glass, would he?

The clatter of the glass crashing was his answer. Tom widened his eyes and cursed, “Damn!”

He hastily retreated when the kid took less than a second to close the distance between them, yet he still couldn’t escape getting a scratch on his left arm by the small hand striking at him when he used his arm to shield his eyes from being plucked out. Tom hissed at the searing pain, and blood instantly poured out of the deep wound; then he warily eyed the sharp claws that had sprung out from the brat’s slender fingers without his notice.

Tom suddently raised his gun and fired at the kid but he smoothly jumped out of shooting range at the last moment, yet instead of continuing to attack the clever brat sprinted to the door leading out of the laboratory.

 _‘Not good! He wants to escape!’_ Tom fired another shot at the door just when the sly creature reached out for it, making it leap back reflexively. In the moment the brat contemplated turning to attack Tom once more, an obvious solution lighted up in his head. Tom spun around and darted to where he had shut down the main power of the room just moments ago; in his peripheral vision Tom saw the brat rushed at him as though that thing could guess exactly what Tom intended to do.

Unfortunately for the brat, Tom was just a little bit faster than him. A piercing scream reverberated through the room when Tom switched on the electricity. The ferocious, powerful creature abruptly fell down with an agonized cry. High voltage electric shocks ran continuously for a whole minute while the poor thing helplessly writhed in pain until it stopped.

Cautiously, Tom came closer to where the pitiful thing was panting on the floor. He put one foot on the dangerous creature’s belly, then loaded his gun and aimed it at his head. The thing’s fearful green eyes filled with unshed tears as he glanced up at the gun’s muzzle, then turned to look at Tom and blinked a few times before resignation overtook his whole visage.

Tom’s maroon eyes stared at the dejected anticipation inside those captivating verdant orbs of the creature under his feet; and for the first time in his life, Tom was reluctant to pull the trigger.

In the end, he took a deep breath before crouching down to inspect the child, who had immediately curled into a small trembling ball the moment Tom’s foot left his abdomen. He grasped the delicate wrists, which were still encased in the metal chain, and roughly pulled the boy up.

Tom Riddle was a professional mercenary, he could detect murderous intentions from other living humans by instinct, so he knew the second he turned the electricity back on this quivering brat had lost all of his will to fight back. That was also why Tom didn’t hesitate to touch him now. He tugged at the hands trying to jerk back, probably to continue wrapping those arms around his currently folded knees, and started to examine this high-tech biological weapon.

He spotted a series of numbers sewn on the left front of the thin gown the boy was wearing, and muttered “1331?” The _thing_ in his hand flinched, trembling even harder and squeezing his eyes tightly. Tom furrowed his brows and wondered how those despicable scientists numbered their creatures. They did not total them up by the numbers of experiments successfully created, right?

… Hopefully not.

He looked at the shaking little boy, who had remained completely silent during his scrutiny, and pondered what he should do next. Eliminating this special creature was such a waste, but his mission explicitly stated no living human was allowed.

Then Tom smirked, but this _thing_ couldn’t be counted as a **_human_** , right?


	2. Dead Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this chapter was taken from a song with the same name by Stars, the lyric reminds me a lot about childhood and how painful it is to grow up, it hurts every time I listened to the song.

There was another creature residing in Tom’s house lately; it was the living experiment he had taken with him from his latest mission.

He had knocked the _thing_ unconscious and copied all the information that he could dig up in the laboratory’s computer system database. Then Tom took the liberty of collecting every useful thing left in that sinful place before blasting the whole building off.

In the first few days, Tom had to keep the boy deep in slumber with some sedatives, while he spent time going through all the data he had collected. The truth wasn’t too far from his initial guess. This child looking humanoid was one of the successfully created experiments, and the last surviving one up to this point; he had been carried and born from an artificial womb in the lab.

The genetic codes of these creatures were destroyed and reconstructed multiple times, continuously modified and implanted with numerous advanced traits to produce the most powerful living weapons. Among a thousand original eggs that had resulted in various defective creations, either malformed or incapacitated, only ten eggs were hatched out successfully.

When those ten creations had reached a relatively stable state, those cruel scientists had subjected them to countless heinous tests. Based on the report Tom had read, nine out of ten experiments had slowly died out during that inhumane process. The day Tom arrived at that place, 1331 had already been the sole survivor for three months.

It was also noted that the electric shock collar around 1331’s neck hindered his movements due to some kind of vibrational frequencies emotion-detector implanted inside. Whenever the boy got too untamable, the collar would be activated automatically, preventing any unexpected harms or fatal incidents the experiment could cause in his crazed state. Knowing that, Tom changed the collar’s functioning to work on the power from his house’s electricity.

After all precautions had been taken care of, Tom stopped injecting drugs into the boy and allowed him to wake up. Then it took time and a few electric shocks for Tom to tame 1331 and teach him some _manners_.

At the moment, that _thing_ was currently curling up on the couch in the middle of his living room, quietly watching as Tom warmed up some leftovers for dinner. He still couldn’t figured out why he had taken the brat, so Tom opted to keep him like a pet while pondering his options, and what he could gain from such an unprecedented bio-weapon.

“Eat,” Tom handed over a slice of baked apple pie and watched the brat timidly sniffing at the food and taking a small bite, then he hurriedly devoured the rest at once before looking up at the older man adorably, quietly hoping for more with his big green eyes. Tom dutifully gave the scrawny boy another slice.

Just like a gullible puppy, with concealed vicious nature though...

Tom watched his pet munching on his sweet treat, and suddenly said, “Harry.”

The creature seated on his couch instantly froze and dropped his meal; then jerking his head up to look at Tom with eyes wide in shock. Looking deep into those emerald gems, Tom found out that other than the ever-present naivety and fear and caution, some new emotions were currently swirling up inside, torment and grief.

1331 had been called Harry by two other experiments, who used to be held in the same cell with him; they also had their own self-proclaimed names. Those scientists might have found that characteristically human evolution interesting, as they only recorded that development and did not prevent it.

Being detained in the same cell resulted in 1331 and the other two creatures becoming quite close. Tom’s pet was locked up in solitary confinement and put on an electric shock collar to keep him under control, for the boy had gone berserk after being forced to witness the slaughter of his friends in an extremely cruel test. That incident had happened over a year ago but apparently he still remembered that name.

Tom’s brows furrowed the moment his pet’s big green eyes welled up in tears. “Don’t cry,” He immediately ordered before the boy started weeping, _again_. God knew Tom hated tears more than anything, but his human-looking-puppy just loved to cry. Tom needed only one week living with the brat to discover this dreadful tendency.

The supposedly dangerous creature could cry about every little things, be it a decent meal, or having a warm bath, or being given some of Tom’s used shirts to wear; as long as you weren’t hurting him, just being generally kind to him would be enough to turn his pet into a sobbing ball. Tom felt both annoyance and pity for this sad little whelp.

“1331 is too much of a mouthful, so I’ll just call you Harry from now on. Is that okay?” Tom asked his pet. The boy used his shirt’s sleeve to wipe off unshed tears in his eyes, while nipping at his bottom lips to stop crying and nodding purposely. “Alright, Harry it is. Do you need to eat more?”

Harry accepted another slice of pie, and Tom pretended he didn’t feel Harry’s gaze watching him during the rest of the night.

The brat could be his guarding house pet for the time being, Tom mused.


	3. Burning Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this chapter was taken from a song with the same name by SVRCINA, she's a great singer and this song's just beautiful Ọ__Ọ

Tom absently inserted his key and unlocked the door while thinking about the offer he had just received from his minions. It could be because he knew Harry was inside guarding the house or the fact that Tom had just moved into this area half a year ago, that got him to assume his enemies couldn’t have been able to detect this place, _yet_.

It was why Tom sensed the danger only when he had already opened the front door.

**_Bang!_** The bullet nearly grazed his face when Tom instinctively dodged it at the last moment. He took one step back and pretended to lose his balance, allowing two strange men in his periphery an easy chance to seize him.

“Tsk, tsk, look who’s back,” a nasty voice feigning to be sweet uttered, making Tom dislike the voice’s owner immediately. He turned to see a woman wearing a hideous pink dress; her smiling face couldn’t hide the malice gleaming in her eyes.

_Such an ugly toad_ , Tom silently noted.

His eyes quickly scanned the room; there were seven unfamiliar men aside from that pink toad standing around, including the two guys currently gripping his arms. Three of them wore white long lab coat looking like some scientists, while the rest appeared to be their body guards. _They must be here for Harry_ , Tom realized. He didn’t know whether to feel relieved because it wasn’t his enemies getting too good in tracking him and having found out this place, or to berate himself for foolishly assuming that there couldn’t be any living human knowing about Harry’s existence, or able to locate the boy.

After finishing his assessment of the enemies, Tom turned to check on his pet. The boy was being held between two scientists, while the third guy was running some kind of inspection test on his body. Harry’s red-rimmed eyes began to well up in tears at the instant Tom’s eyes looked into his.

“Quit crying, Harry.” He ordered on reflex before his brain had time to catch up with his mouth. The irate feeling exploded inside his chest when he saw those filthy hands touching what belonged to him, making Tom miss the unusual soothing tone in his voice despite the cold words.

Harry immediately obeyed, blinking his eyelids to stop the flooding tears from falling. It was unfortunate that the boy’s compliance did not escape the toad’s notice. She narrowed her eyes, giving Tom one hateful glare before glancing away and bending down to get at eye-level with his pet.

“Look at you, getting attached to anyone who’s willing to throw you some sweets, _again_.” Her callous voice was taunting Harry and anxiety, which Tom couldn’t understand, started seeping up inside the boy’s fearful green eyes. “He even called you Harry, you must have liked it _a lot_ , didn’t you?” Her chubby hand reached out to gripped Harry’s chin, “Do you really believe that one simple name could magically turn you into a human, 1331? You are nothing but a _freaking_ hybrid, a dirty existence we created to experiment on. And you dare to run away? For how long did you think you could hide from us? Did you truly think that blowing up our facility would prevent us from tracking you down?” She sneered cruelly, “Maybe you need a little reminder about the consequence for daring to fight against us, huh?”

The instant those words left the toad’s mouth was the moment Harry went feral. The small boy wrenched free from those scientists’ hold, but the high voltage electric shocks that flared up from the collar around his neck immediately forced Harry down. The boy thrashed helplessly on the floor in extreme pain for a whole minute while the pink toad watched with obvious enjoyment. Nobody paid attention to the way Tom’s body went rigid and the murderous looks in his reddened eyes.

When the electricity stopped running, the two scientists hauled Harry up again; the boy’s lovely face was wet with tears and he was panting harshly. His hauntingly emerald gems desperately found and locked deep into Tom’s crimson orbs.

“Tom…” A clear voice, though slightly quivering in pain, that Tom only heard for the first time escaped from Harry’s shaking lips, sounding so painfully helpless like a wounded cry. It was only one simple syllable but still, it was enough to strike right through Tom’s chest, leaving him awestruck and completely immobile.

The pink toad’s harsh voice cut through the chaotic feelings that had been steadily choking his heart again, “Look at what this pathetic little freak called you. Tom Riddle, one of the highest profile professional mercenaries, aren’t you?” She sneered with disdain; Tom refused to deem her worthy of an answer. Though maybe any words from him seemed to be unnecessary because the vile toad had already gone on talking without pausing a beat for his confirmation, “I am Dolores Umbridge, Head Supervisor of the research facility that you blew up three months ago.” She gave a mocking laugh at that, “You might have thought that building was all we had. Let me tell you something, it’s just a fraction of our many greater achievements. Though that has nothing to do with you anymore, ‘cause I don’t intend to let you live after we’ve finished here.”

Harry was wildly struggling again at this point, “Tom!” His soft crystalline voice called his name in panic.

Umbridge just briefly glanced at the small boy before turning back to Tom with sadistic glints in her cruel eyes, “This little freak must have been a lovely toy, wasn’t it? We forced it through so much torture that you only needed to show a bit of kindness for it to get pathetically attached to you. Even though you’re nothing more than another monster, just like us, and your intention in taking the freak with you must be nothing close to kindness at all. But it likes you, so much that it’s able to say your name.” She clutched at the boy’s nape and yanked his head up, “This worthless freak has some defective vocal cords, and with the numerous excruciating tests we had put it through, it’s no wonder that this useless thing has become nearly mute. However,” Umbridge laughed, “It can pronounce three names, one of them being yours. I guess that should be worth it for you to die today because of this freak, right?”

The pink toad aimed the gun at Tom’s head, but her pleased gaze didn’t leave Harry’s tearful eyes; the vibrant green inside almost turned incandescent with silent begging and pleading for mercy. “1331, you wouldn’t forget the other two names, would you? Do you remember why poor _James_ and _Lily_ had to die? Because those foolish creatures wanted to protect _you_.” She unlocked the gun, “Your new master will die today, also because of _you_.”

Tom smirked, and was about to strike at the instant that pink toad loaded her gun but another person, _much_ faster than Tom, beat him to it.

Blood gushed out from Umbridge’s ugly lips; her eyes widened in disbelief when she looked down at the arm that had impaled through her chubby abdomen, then slowly turned to look at the owner of that arm. Harry looked right back at Umbridge with livid resentment burning in his captivating gems, but at the same time they were frosty chill as if his gentle soul had died right at that moment.

The gun dropped uselessly to the ground, making a clanking sound while Umbridge fell back heavily. Her fat fingers desperately tried to cover the hole on her belly, but blood still flooded out nonstop.

The three scientists around Harry hastily scrambled away but the boy was faster than them. _Unbelievably_ so. His hands reached out and grasped the necks of the two scientists who had been holding him before in a death grip; and in the next second sharp claws sprung out and pierced through the delicate skins. Harry jerked his hands back forcefully, leaving fatal gaping wounds on the throats of the two _dead_ man behind. The boy instantly leaped forward and pushed the last scientist down on his back; his bloody hand swiftly stabbed through the guy’s heart.

**_Bang! Bang!_** Gunshots rang out from the two guards nearby, after they recovered from their shocked state, but Harry precisely avoided every single bullet coming at him with admirable grace. The boy pulled his hand out of the dead scientist’s chest and darted forward, gripping the two muzzles pointing at him with lighting speed and effortlessly crushing the metal with his inhuman strength.

The guys holding Tom immobile abruptly released him in order to pull out their guns, aiming at the deadly creature who looked so frighteningly unaffected and calm in his vicious attacks, despite the countless electric shocks running through his body at the same time.

In their haste, they completely forgot the man they just let loose wasn’t some useless nobody.

Tom turned to the guy on the left and quickly swiped his legs, yanking the gun from the man’s hold, and shot him dead in the head as he fell, before swirling around to grasp the other guy’s wrist, who had just turned his gun back to Tom upon hearing the gunshot. Tom pulled the arm toward to himself, causing the guy to lose his balance and using the opportunity to knee him hard in the crotch. The sudden pain rendered the guy useless for a moment on the floor, but it was enough for Tom to fire the gun again and effectively put him to rest for good.

When Tom looked back at Harry, the boy had already finished with the guards. He slowly walked back to where the ugly pink toad was gasping out her last breaths amid a growing puddle of blood, while desperate hands clawed at her belly trying to stop the blood from gushing out of the gaping hole.

Tom’s brows creased when he caught the sight of blood steadily dripping down from under Harry’s collar. He rushed to the left corner of the room and promptly shut down the electricity, preventing the damning collar from continuing to hurt his pet; but even with the power abruptly turned off, Harry made no reaction to show that the boy had felt the electric shocks running through his body before.

Harry stopped in front of Umbridge; his enchanting green eyes shone bright with a dangerous crimson glint, and Tom had to agree that when Harry was trapped in bloodlust, the boy truly was an extremely frightening sight. Harry leaned down and grasped the pink toad’s right wrist while his other hand clutched at her shoulder; then with an absolutely calm expression the boy tore the appendage right off her body. Umbridge howled in agony while a torrent of her blood splatterred all over Harry. Still, the boy just coldly waited until Umbridge’s loud screams reduced to pitiful whimpers, before his blood-stained hand swiftly stabbed through the toad’s chest and yanked out her still-beating heart from where it had desperately been pumping blood through her dying body.

Umbridge stopped breathing with her eyes opened wide. Harry threw the toad’s _dead_ heart beside her severed arm; and then the boy seemed to be frozen in place.

Tom quietly took a deep breath before he slowly approached his pet, “Harry?” He called softly, didn’t want to frighten the boy. Harry gave him no reaction.

Tom stepped in front of his pet, took a long moment to look deep into Harry’s glazed eyes before he crouched down to his eye level and cautiously reached out a hand. He typed the code numbers to unlock Harry’s collar before taking it off, inspecting the badly burned skin that the child’s neck had suffered from many violent electrical shocks; blood was seeping out of the awful wound. He was startled when Harry abruptly caught his wrist the instant his hand just began to pull back.

He looked up but Harry was fast hanging his head down, and the boy’s hand still clutched tight around Tom’s wrist started to shake. It took him a moment to realize Harry was crying, but this time Tom didn’t order the boy to stop; instead he breathed out a sigh of relief. _At least he finally shows some emotions_ , Tom thought before he tugged Harry closer and gathered the trembling boy in his arms.

“…Tom,” Harry buried his face into the neck of the person holding him, helplessly trying to hide the tears and whispering his name with a quivering voice.

“Cry,” Tom said the word like an order, but his tone was gentle. “Let your tears wash away all your heartaches. I allow you to cry this time.”

Harry clutched on Tom tighter, feeling like his chest had just exploded inside. The boy started to sob, scalding tears rapidly soaking the fabric on his left shoulder.

In between Harry’s broken sobs, Tom could taste so much sorrow and bitterness, and even more griefs and fears. Tom understood the hidden meaning behind those feelings; in his choice of profession Tom had encountered many types of people.

This was the overwhelming feeling of regrets combined with guilt.

Killing was not often an easy thing, even though the scums Harry had just slaughtered were very much deserved it, or even _more_ if Tom was being honest. But he knew that not everybody could kill without remorse as effortlessly as he could. Many serial killers had to learn to numb their feelings when they murdered people; only a few were born natural monsters like Tom, and the rest… well, the rest were just long overdue karma personified in this dirty world.

Harry was created to become the perfect killing machine, but this little weapon didn’t have an intrinsic thirst to kill. Just how cruel and sad was being subjected to such a fate for someone like Harry? Every single life he had taken, every single sacrifice had been made willingly to protect the boy; all become heavy burdens, pressing down on Harry’s conscience and soul for each and every second he was still alive.

To prevent Harry from being completely crushed under the weight of repressed feelings, Tom thought he could permit his pet one chance to openly cry until his anguish was drained out.

It was the moment while holding Harry tightly that the glaring truth truly dawned on Tom, that the _trembling sobbing warm_ body in his arms was not any _unfeeling_ machine. The boy was a living breathing _human_ being. An intelligent biological weapon possessing more compassion and kindness than any other person he had come across in his life.

Suddenly Tom realized he didn’t want to witness Harry being forced to kill again, he didn’t want to see those delicate hands stained in unworthy blood and another stolen life haunting the boy’s gentle heart.

Not until long after did he realize that was his first stray step off the familiar road and onto a different, crooked path: when aside from himself, Tom Riddle had the foreign desire to protect someone else.

**Author's Note:**

> Many special thanks to my lovely teacher for helping proofread this silly story.


End file.
